1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical disk conveying device for holding and conveying an optical disk with the help of a rotatable feed roller and an optical disk reproducing device having this optical disk conveying device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There has been a strong demand in the market for downsizing and thinning of optical disk reproducing devices, in particular optical disk reproducing devices for automobiles, and intense research and development activities are being undertaken to cope with such a demand. In order to downsize and thin optical disk reproducing devices, a system of directly holding and conveying an optical disk by means of a feed roller and disk guides is adopted, instead of the conventional system of mounting an optical disk on a tray to insert the optical disk into and eject the same from the reproducing device (refer, for example, Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 8-138298).
FIG. 1 show the structure of a disk conveying device for a conventional optical disk reproducing device for automobiles, and FIG. 1A is a front sectional view, FIG. 1B is a top plan view and FIG. 1C is a side sectional view. In FIG. 1, a disk conveying device 11 is disposed in front of a lower chassis 10 constituting the main chassis of the device. The disk conveying device 11 includes a metal feeding plate 12 extending in the width direction of the lower chassis 10, and a rotary supporting shaft 13 fitted at the center of both sides of the feeding plate 12 and protruding outward is supported slidably in a circular direction by the lower chassis 10. At the back-end on both sides of the feeding plate 12, a rubber feeding roller 14 of an expanded diameter from the central part towards both ends are rotatably supported through a shaft by the lower chassis. The feeding plate 12 is forced to rotate clockwise by the action of a twist coil spring 15 provided around its rotary supporting shaft 13, approaches, in the normal state, a disk guide 31 forming an integral part of the upper chassis 30, and conveys a disk D inserted from an opening for disk insertion 10a by holding the same between the feeding roller 14 and the disk guide 31. The opening for disk insertion 10a is formed on the front plate of the lower chassis 10.
The disk guide 31 consists of a first ridge 31a, a second ridge 31b parallel to the former and disposed at positions facing each other on both sides of the feeding roller 14, and a third ridge 31c formed at a position close to the opening for disk insertion 10a and dogleg-shaped by slanting the central part forward and the both ends backward. The ridges 31a, 31b and 31c protrude in the dogleg shape towards the feeding roller 14 and formed in a tapered shape with the same incline so that they may approach the feeding roller 14 from the central part to the both ends. Due to the presence of the ridges, the disk D inserted from the opening for disk insertion 10a is conveyed deep into the device by the feeding roller 14 being centered by the respective ridges 31c, 31b and 31a. And at the end of conveyance, the disk D is located at the central position of the turntable that rotates the same.
However, when the conventional disk conveying device mentioned above is applied to a slim optical disk reproducing device, as shown in FIG. 2A, the back-end edge of the disk D rubs the second ridge 31b resulting in a slight scratch depending on the drawing operation of the user, when the feeding roller 14 ends ejecting the disk D, the back-end edge of the disk D comes off the first ridge 31a, and the user tries to grab the disk D to draw out the same. Such an incidence occurs when, as shown in FIG. 2B which is an enlarged detail of the section B-B of FIG. 2A, the back-end edge of the disk D, being pushed by the feeding roller 14, line-contacts the second ridge 31bwithin a specified range W from a central line CL (for example within a range of 27.1 mm to 37.0 mm for the central line CL) because the angle of inclination θ cannot be made sharper due to the same inclination θ that continues from the both ends to the central line (CL) on the second ridge 31b (ditto in the case of the first ridge 31a and the third ridge 31c). Such scratches are particularly problematic because of the likelihood of causing reproduction failures when the disk D is a DVD on which data is recorded on both sides. Even if the disk D is a CD or other similar media on which data is recorded only on one side, a similar problem occurs when the user commits mistakes in inserting the disk such as inserting the disk D upside down.
The present invention is made in order to solve such prior problems, and its object is to provide an optical disk conveying device capable of conveying without damaging the disk even when the device is made thinner and an optical disk reproducing device having the same.